BRITAIN: Pigeons and Pirates

As early as 1557, Britain's mail carriers
were complaining about their paltry wages. According to one sympathetic
chronicler, in that "busy tyme of the warres they were not hable to
lyve of Xlld [12 pence] by the daye, which in tyme of peace was their
ordinary wages." Not until last week, however, did the country's
long-suffering letter carriers finally get around to staging the first
nationwide strike in the history of the British post office. Britain's
distinctive red mailboxes were sealed with brown tape as most of the
230,000 members of the...